diff --git a/.github/workflows/django-tests.yml b/.github/workflows/django-tests.yml
index 00e08dadb..97a744813 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/django-tests.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/django-tests.yml
@@ -55,5 +55,6 @@ jobs:
         EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD: ""
         EMAIL_USE_TLS: true
         ENABLE_PREVIEW_IMAGES: false
+        ENABLE_THUMBNAIL_GENERATION: true
       run: |
         pytest -n 3
diff --git a/bookwyrm/tests/models/test_book_model.py b/bookwyrm/tests/models/test_book_model.py
index a5ddc2504..5a2a6c3b6 100644
--- a/bookwyrm/tests/models/test_book_model.py
+++ b/bookwyrm/tests/models/test_book_model.py
@@ -103,15 +103,16 @@ class Book(TestCase):
 
     def test_thumbnail_fields(self):
         """Just hit them"""
-        settings.ENABLE_THUMBNAIL_GENERATION = True
         image_file = pathlib.Path(__file__).parent.joinpath(
             "../../static/images/default_avi.jpg"
         )
         image = Image.open(image_file)
         output = BytesIO()
         image.save(output, format=image.format)
+
         book = models.Edition.objects.create(title="hello")
         book.cover.save("test.jpg", ContentFile(output.getvalue()))
+
         self.assertIsNotNone(book.cover_bw_book_xsmall_webp.url)
         self.assertIsNotNone(book.cover_bw_book_xsmall_jpg.url)
         self.assertIsNotNone(book.cover_bw_book_small_webp.url)